Gambling in Serbia Since the Yugoslav Wars that saw the breakup of former Yugoslavia, and the formation of what would later become Serbia & Montenegro, Serbia had quite strict gambling laws, limited the practice to state controlled institutions, most only offering slot machines.

However, after the referendum that saw Montenegro break with Serbia, a number of gambling operations came into force, including poker clubs, a televised lottery, and a sports betting industry that has grown and grown. Black market gambling, however, has been a major problem, but one that the government has been keen to address.

As of November 22nd 2011, they did, too, with the new Serbian gambling law coming into place. The law provided a framework for online gambling, and cracked down on the black market gambling centers that had appeared around the country. The new law was given the thumbs up by the trade association JATKA, too.Online Gambling in SerbiaHistorically, online casinos in Serbia have not been mentioned in law. While they were not actively banned, the government did not issue licenses to allow Serbian companies to provide gambling services online. Players were still able to access foreign based websites, however, which they did in their droves.

Now, however, after the passing of their 2011 gambling law, online gambling has been regulated in Serbia. As such, all companies wishing to offer gambling services to Serbian players need to be licensed and hold their servers within the country. Otherwise, the government has reserved the right to blacklist any unlicensed websites. As the gambling tax is a reasonable 5%, many companies have taken them up on this, although more than 70 websites were blocked in 2012.